Global currencies to USD

Map @ref(fig:currencymap) shows currency exchange rates from national currencies to US Dollar. Data is retrieved by means of Alpha Ventage API in real-time at foreign exchange opening hours.

Alpha Ventage API provides free API service for up to 5 API requests per minute and 500 requests per day. To make sure that this limit is not exceeded, the request frequency is set to 1 request per 20 seconds. > Currently, the code retrieves data for the first country in the list of alphabetically order countries, i.e. exchange rate of Afghan Afghani to USD. > > You may retrieve exange rates of a larger number of countries (see variabe numcalls <- 1). Keep in mind that rendering time will increase with ~numcalls * 20sec.

Conclusions

A depreciation of a currency makes imports more expensive and leads to a demand shift away from foreign goods towards domestic goods (Towbin and Weber 2013). Conversely, strong currencies make imports more attractive.

Towbin, Pascal, and Sebastian Weber. 2013. “Limits of Floating Exchange Rates: The Role of Foreign Currency Debt and Import Structure.” Journal of Development Economics 101: 179–94.